Hi Aaron,

we’re glad to hear that we can make (part of) your dreams come true ;) and I’d be happy to help you install OpenProject.

What have you tried so far? Have you found the installation instructions (https://www.openproject.org/projects/openproject/wiki/Installation)? Which steps have you done and have you experienced any errors? On which operating system do you want to install OpenProject? And, finally, which OpenProject version do you try to install (I’d recommend the 3.0 version).

— Philipp

Philip, thank you so much for your willingness to help! Last night I attempted to install open project on my Mac using the instructions for the 3.0 release. I operate from a laptop, so I think for a collaborative solution with my team, operating my laptop as a server is probably not ideal. I got so far as setting up the SQL database and then it ran into an issue where it was unable to open MySQL through terminal. I think that an ideal solution might potentially be one where open project was hosted on an external server, ideally one that is either free or very affordable, or one that I’m already paying for through my website. Our website is currently hosted through Go Daddy.

Again, any insight you can offer is so very appreciated. Thank you again!

in Christ
aaron

I don’t have any experience with GoDaddy servers. They might have guides on how to run ruby on rails apps (ruby on rails is the web framework we build OpenProject with), though.

Assuming GoDaddy is shared hosting of some sort you might not have enough resources (esp. RAM) on the server to operate OpenProject - but, as I said, I have no experience here. However this GoDaddy support article might be a show stopper for you.

I don’t know of any hosted OpenProject solution yet - as we gain popularity there might be someone doing just that in the future.

Anyways, you might want to set up OpenProject on a server in your internal network - or to get the feeling - on your laptop for the time being. I assume you follow the Mac OS guide and are stuck at ‘Set up a database’

The MySQL console should open, when typing mysql in the command line - what happens if you do so? Can you paste the console output?
You don’t even need to use the console, there are plenty MySQL GUI tools out there (I don’t have a mac, but heard that some friends use sequelpro for example)

I found that same article in my initial exploration of Go Daddy. Thinking that is a dead end. Are there any reliable web hosts that you have had experience with that you think would be an appropriate fit for hosting OpenProject?

I was able to get the MySQL console open, but after this, I pasted:

CREATE DATABASE openproject CHARACTER SET utf8;
CREATE USER ‘aaron’‘cysc.com’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘password’; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON openproject.* TO ‘aaron’‘cysc.com’;

And was met with a number of errors. Did I miss something? I downloaded sequelpro, but do not know where I would find the database to access it through the program.

The error I received is attached:

You need to authenticate to MySQL (via username/password). I guess you can use the default root user with an empty password*

mysql -u root

if you have a password set, use:

mysql -u root -p

*) you should set a root password. see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6474775/setting-the-mysql-root-user-password-on-osx

Nevermind. I created the database and user through sequel pro. Next problem is in the

Copy config/database.yml.example to config/database.yml.

cd config
cp database.yml.example database.yml

How do I edit database.yml and fill in my database username and password?

Unfortunately, I don’t know the hosted server business very well. I cannot recommend a special service. Maybe someone else can answer that question?

database.yml is a simple text file (well it’s actually a special text file in the yaml format) and you can edit it with any text editor.

where can I find that file to edit it?

wait. found it!

Thank you for your help. I’ve got everything rolling. Just a matter of learning a few new techniques. Thanks again!

We know you have to learn quite a few things to install OpenProject. I’m glad I could help - have fun! :)

Hey Philipp. Now that I’ve been able to get OpenProject running on my local machine, how do I change settings such that others would be able to access it online? Thanks again for all of your help!

It really depends on your system settings (firewall etc).

There is nothing on the OpenProject level which restricts access to localhost. If you cannot access you OpenProject installation with http://: in a browser, you have probably some sort of firewall running which restricts access.